Dulce Somnii: a Ciel X Sebastian

Nightmares...

Narrator's POV

It started with a scratching.

Every night, after Ciel read himself his bedtime story and cuddled in bed with his favorite stuffed animal, a Bitter Rabbit, he could always hear the wooden frame of his bed get scratched.

Sometimes the scratching was faint and Ciel could barely hear it.

And other times, like tonight, it was deafening.

The sixteen year old boy clamped his eyes shut, too scared of what was causing the noise to even look.

For the next few hours, the scratching began to wane when the worst occurred: Ciel accidentally dropped his stuffie off the bed.

Instantly upon hearing the soft landing of the toy, the teen began to tear up since he was now alone and Bitter Rabbit was now at the monster's mercy.

His silent tears turned into sobs, he was so frightened that he made a brave choice.

Taking a deep breath, Ciel jumped off his bed and ran out of his bedroom and down the hall until he was in his parents room.

Ciel gently nudged his mother awake, "Muma, can I sleep here tonight?"

"Of co-" Rachel began, starting to move so Ciel could sleep between her and his father, getting interrupted by her husband

"You are sixteen, Ciel, you're too old to sleep here anymore. Go back to your room." Vincent said, his voice thick with sleep

"I can't." Ciel whimpered

Vincent huffed, "Why not?"

"There's a monster under my bed." The teen answered

Vincent sighed, "Fecking hell. I know your doctor said you'd act like a bloody invalid but this is ridiculous."

"Vincent!" Rachel gasped, shocked at how her husband would say that about their son

Ciel's eyes teared up once more, his bottom lip quivering, "Please let me stay tonight, papa."

"Don't make me repeat myself, boy." Vincent half-growled, "Go to your room."

Wiping the tears from his eyes, trembling the whole way, Ciel walked back into his bedroom.

Lying on his pillow, was Bitter Rabbit waiting to cuddle him into dreamland like always.

Ciel sprinted back to bed and covered himself head to toe in his blanket, trying to fall asleep.

***

As Ciel dreamt, Rachel laid awake as she remembered Ciel's last therapy session and what his psychiatrist, Ms. Blanc, had said about her son's brain scan results.

Ms. Blanc informed her, "Mirror neurons usually adapt as people mature, helping them grow and interact with the world around them. While Ciel's seems to have stagnated around nine or ten and are just repeating the same messages —simply, his brain isn't letting him grow up. It certainly doesn't help that his x-ray shows that he had double the quantity of most, which is just reinforcing the childishness."

"What can we do to help him?" Rachel had asked

The psychiatrist sighed, "That's where it gets difficult. A case as complex as Ciel's has never been recorded as most people with his issues either have double the neurons or stagnant ones. The two problems have different treatments that conflict with each other. For the stagnant neurons I'd say for you to have him homeschooled or go to online school but for double I'd have him interact with others his age. And with children the way they are, if he experiences even the slightest bit of bullying there is a risk his mental reaction is to regress further."

"What treatment do we follow?" Rachel asked, rephrasing her question

"That's up to you and your husband, Mrs. Phantomhive." The platinum blonde woman answered, "The first treatment option is to have him interact with others and hope the stagnation ends but you'd be risking further mental deterioration. The other option is to keep him comfortable and keep him home. Either way, it's very unlikely he will ever mentally mature enough to be on his own so he will either spend his life living at home or living with a caretaker."

"Is there a specialist or anyone who can help?" Rachel asked

The lavender eyed woman shook her head, "No, either one of his problems effect less than a hundred people around the world and he was unlucky enough to get both. It's so specific it doesn't even have a name, the closest thing would be 'Peter Pan Syndrome' but that isn't even a recognized illness."...